1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spacer for a liquid crystal panel, and more particularly to a spacer and a manufacturing device for the same.
2. Description of Related Art
With the development of the display technology, a liquid crystal panel is widely applied. However, the liquid crystal panel is formed by injecting liquid crystal molecules between an array substrate and a color filter substrate. The structure of the liquid crystal panel decides that when an external temperature is changed, a material expansion or a material shrinkage of the glass substrate and the liquid crystal molecules. Besides, the liquid crystal product usually suffers an external force impact such as a touch so that a misalignment of the substrates of the liquid crystal display panel is easily generated so as to cause a light leakage problem of the panel. Accordingly, adverse impacts of the display effect such as wrong display colors or bad display effect is generated.
In order to increase a supporting effect at a periphery region of the liquid crystal display device, and preventing the liquid crystal display device from generating a deformation in a later module process by an external force. In the conventional art, protruding cylindrical post spacers (PS) are disposed on the color filter substrate in order to support a gap between the array substrate and the color filter substrate so as to maintain a uniform cell thickness. The post spacers can be divided into main post spacers and sub post spacers. A height of the main post spacer is higher than a height of the sub spacer. After the array substrate and the color filter substrate are bonded, the main post spacers abut against the array substrate, and the sub post spacers do not abut against the array substrate. The main spacers support the liquid crystal panel in a normal working environment. When an external pressure applied on the liquid crystal panel is too large, the sub post spacers can abut against the array substrate in order to increase an entire supporting strength.
The structure of the main post spacer and the sub post spacer is a prismatic platform or a prismatic column which having a trapezoidal cross section. The main post spacers support the array substrate and the sub post spacers are floating to realize an auxiliary supporting function. However, in the above design, the main post spacer and the sub post spacer are manufactured independently. When surface manufacturing methods for the main post spacer and the sub post spacer are different, the roughness is different. A level difference between the main post spacer and the sub post spacer cannot be controlled precisely. A post spacer having a convex-shaped cross section is designed. That is, on a terminal surface of a normal post spacer, an extension portion having a smaller size is formed. The post spacer has a gradient such that when a display panel is compressed, a second gradient can abut against the array substrate so as to function as the sub post spacer. Comparing to the main post spacer and the sub post spacer which are manufactured independently, the structure does not require independently manufacturing a stepped portion to realize a level difference between the main post spacer and the sub post spacer in order to increase a pixel aperture ratio. However, a manufacturing process for the post spacer having a convex-shaped cross section requires two exposure processes. First, through a first exposure process to manufacture a sub post spacer having a first gradient, and then, through a second exposure process to manufacture a stepped portion on the sub post spacer in order to form a main post spacer having a second gradient. However, two exposure processes require two photo masks. Similarly, two exposure processes are required so that the manufacturing cost is still high.